The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Miami-based environmental engineering firm PBS&J are compiling a database on the nation's levees as part of a federal mandate. Congress directed the Corps to complete the levee inventory and status check in 2005 in response to the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The database is part of the National Levee Safety Program and will eventually include 14,000 miles of levees. It will contain information on each levee — such as centerlines and profiles, floodwall locations and gravity drains — that can assist agencies with floodplain management.

More information on the levee inventory program is available at http://www.usace.army.mil.